HAN DYNASTY

Details

A grey pottery painted figure of a horse
Han dynasty
The well modelled powerful body standing foursquare, the head pointing forward with pricked ears and alert expression, the teeth exposed, ducked tail, covered in red brick pigment, some restoration
62 cm. high

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Horses were of great importance during the Tang dynasty, serving the needs of the Emperor down to the humblest merchants and soldiers, both Chinese and foreign. As E. Schafer notes in The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, Berkeley, 1963, p. 59, the horse was invested with sanctity by ancient tradition, endowed with prodigious qualities, and visibly stamped with the marks of his divine origin. A revered myth proclaimed him a relative of the dragon, akin to the mysterious powers of water.
The dating of this lot is consistent with the result of the Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test number C105w20.

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